Latest Contributions by Suzanne-Boden

In the annals of Esri history, “training” meant instructor-led training. (It took a few decades for e-Learning to become a thing.) Back in the day, an instructor-led class was a two-week affair taught only in physical classrooms with a projector, plastic sheets of slides, and something called a floppy disk. Those days are long gone, but one thing that hasn’t changed is our commitment to help individuals achieve their ArcGIS learning goals and help customer organizations achieve maximum value from their ArcGIS investment. Today’s instructor-led training is available online and in person. It’s an active learning experience that uses the latest classroom technology, and every course is designed and built to a set of specific and measurable learning objectives. Everyone’s time is valuable. We want attendees to leave class feeling they got their money’s worth and then some. We want to exceed expectations. Expectations, however, can be hard to predict. In order to exceed expectations, first we must set the proper expectations. Which brings us to our new tool. Our instructor-led class readiness tool, released today, is intended to better communicate the knowledge and skills that course designers assumed attendees would have when starting a class. The readiness tool provides a set of multiple choice questions that measure prerequisite knowledge and skills that were defined at the outset of a course development project.   Our intention with this tool is to help those who are looking for an instructor-led class determine whether a course is a good match for their existing skills. It’s also useful for those who are registered to attend and want to make sure they’re well prepared before class begins. The tool doesn’t just spit out a numeric score at the end—in fact, it doesn’t return a score at all. Results are qualitative. If the tool detects that skills may be weak in a specific area, a list of relevant e-Learning resources is provided.   From the tool results, you can add suggested resources directly to an Esri Academy learning plan.   You can add resources to an existing learning plan or create a personalized learning plan from scratch. There’s no requirement to use this tool or complete any recommended resources before attending class. We simply want to offer the opportunity for individuals to self-assess and use available resources to refresh their knowledge and skills if they so choose. Time spent in an instructor-led class should be engaging and insightful, and most importantly yield practical results—knowledge and skills that can be applied to get real work done, faster and with better results. Today, the readiness tool is available for a select group of instructor-led courses, including our popular ArcGIS Pro: Essential Workflows and ArcGIS Enterprise: Configuring a Base Deployment courses. We will add the tool to other courses over time. About the Tool What is it? Instructor-Led Class Readiness tool Who should use it? Anyone who is considering registering for an Esri instructor-led class or is already registered and planning to attend on a specific date. How do I access it? Click the tool link on the course description page. Simply sign in with your ArcGIS account to get started. Signing in allows us to store the results so that you can easily access the assessment and list of recommended resources (if there are any) at any time. Answer each question, then review the results. If resources are recommended, plan some time to review them before class starts. ... View more